Validating the eating disorder inventory (EDI-2) in two Danish samples: a comparison between female eating disorder patients and females from the general population.

The Eating Disorder Inventory, Version 2 (EDI-2) is a questionnaire used clinically and in research all over the world. EDI-2 is cross-culturally valid, yet normative values may depend on culture. Norms and reliability of the Danish version have to date been lacking, and will be presented in this article, comparing patients (N = 575) and controls (N = 881). Also, internal reliability of scales is tested for both groups. Differences between norms of the Danish and the North American version of EDI were small but significant for all scales except asceticism (eating disorder patients) and ineffectiveness, interpersonal distrust and maturity fears (normal controls). For both groups the internal consistency was >0.70 for all subscales except asceticism. Although differences across the eating disorder diagnostic groups were dubious, the EDI-2 is useful to screen for eating problems in the general population as well as to rate progress and outcome among eating disorder patients.